Studio Shanghai
American architect Benjamin Wood has made a name for himself in China for his work on a long-term project that has become an icon of Shanghai. Xintiandi is a rags-to-riches district for which Hong Kong developer Shui On Land has won awards for rejuvenating old structures and breathing new life into one of Asia’s wealthiest cities.
A more recent Shui On Land project with Wood, Panlong Tiandi in a water town on the western edge of Shanghai, combines commercial and residential buildings with historically protected village houses and infrastructure such as bridges and canals; it has won awards and been a hit even with tourists visiting from Shanghai.
A blueprint for cities facing oversupply
The success of Xintiandi and Panlong Tiandi in creating neighborhoods that combine work, life and play points to “incredible opportunities” to change the way people think about urban environments and points to a path forward for Chinese cities struggling with a large-scale oversupply of real estate, Wood, 77, said in a recent phone interview.
Rather than segregating separate office districts and residential clusters, city planners should aim to combine residential and commercial areas into a more “semi-autonomous” mix of neighborhoods with their own character, said the architect, whose firm Studio Shanghai is currently pursuing new projects in Xi’an and elsewhere based on that approach. The MIT-educated Wood is a protégé of legendary Boston architect Benjamin Thompson, famous for his work on the city’s popular Faneuil Hall district in the 1960s.
China could use some bold ideas. China’s real estate glut has beleaguered many real estate developers from the ranks of the world’s billionaires and saddled bond investors with losses. Most notable is China Evergrande Group founder Hui Ka Yan, who topped the Forbes China Rich List in 2017 with an estimated fortune worth $42.5 billion, but is now reportedly trapped under the weight of massive debt.
From a long-term project to a milestone in Shanghai
In contrast, even after losing a third of their value in the past five years, the Hong Kong-traded shares of Xintiandi and Panlong developer Shui On Land still have a market capitalization of HK$5.6 billion; chairman Vincent Lo remains a billionaire today with a net worth of $1.5 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list. Xintiandi attracts thousands of visitors every day and features global fashion tenants such as lululemon and local restaurants; Wood himself holds court there at the “DR” bar whose name harkens back to a chain of Design Research lifestyle stores founded by Thompson from a Harvard Square flagship.
Even as China’s export-supported GDP growth reached 5% in 2025 from a year earlier, the average time needed to sell existing housing stock in 100 major cities as of November was 27.4 months – twice a 14-month period considered the outer limit in a balanced market, the government-published China Daily reported on January 15, citing the Shanghai-based E-House China R&D Institute. In lower-tier cities, the wait for buyers took more than three years, the report said.
Global cities are grappling with similar challenges
To be fair, China is not alone in eliminating excess real estate supply. New York, for example, has become an epicenter for the transformation of commercial space into residential units after its own glut during COVID. Notable projects include the transformation of the office tower at Waterstraat 25 into more than 1,000 rental homes.
Scaling a community-driven model across China
In addition to Xintiandi and Panlong Tiandi, Woods’ other designs to combine work and life include Zhongshan Avenue in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, one of the country’s ancient business centers. About 254 hectares were transformed from a dilapidated space into a thriving multi-use area where many local residents were encouraged to stay and upgrade their shops and homes as part of a public-private partnership, Wood said.
Xintiandi in Shanghai is a popular destination for both locals and foreign visitors.
RFF
A new government-coordinated 44,055 square meter project, based on a Wood master plan, is now underway in an area near the intersection of the eastern Chinese cities of Suzhou and Shanghai with Zhejiang province, and includes a cruise ship terminal hotel, offices and apartments. Another building in Shanghai’s Pudong district, on Hengmian Old Street, is currently being developed by state-owned China Jinmao Holdings and combines the character and culture of the old city in an eco-friendly style.
The two draw on public-private partnerships with locals that have brought together small neighbors and shops in a way similar to Wuhan and another high-profile Wood project at Guangzhou’s Enning Road project, Wood said. “Neighbor helps neighbor, and better neighborhoods – each with a unique identity – make better cities within cities,” he said.
Regulators hold the key to small-scale revitalization
In addition to architectural talent, success requires both creative and realistic thinking among developers, regulators and financiers, Wood said. Regulators in the country would do well to allow faster approvals for relatively small projects at the community level to help solve the oversupply in the real estate market and try out new ideas, the former Air Force pilot noted.
Wood also sees a slower rollout of major projects launching in the country in a major pre-75 wavee anniversary of the Communist Party in 2024 as potentially sensible. “You don’t have to do a whole project and then learn for the next big project. You learn the mistakes you make in the first phase. It’s better to start a project over a period of two or three years and see what the demographics will be in the end,” he said.
It’s part of nearly three decades of design and business experience that have created an ongoing American success story amid the ups and downs of China’s real estate industry.
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